Look Out, Dole

See what we saw yesterday?  Those are tiny roots protruding from the pineapple top so I scrubbed the pot we want to use, got the cactus mix bag opened, and this morning our very first pineapple plant is in the ground.  In four more days we'll find another pot and plant the one drying in the dark.  It'll be interesting to see which one makes a new leaf first.  One of my jobs today is to dig up a little notebook so Durwood can chronicle the triumphs and tragedies of our kitchen-based planting adventures.  Ages and ages ago I had a little paperback book about planting seeds and pits and crowns and such from your food.  I wonder if it's in the bookcase downstairs with all the gardening books.  I'll look when I'm getting a notebook later.  We have plans for lemon and lime trees, an avocado, and a sweet potato vine.  We were bemoaning the dearth of windowsills in modern houses.  Where do they expect you to put little pots of things you're sprouting anyway?

Yesterday's gift certificate spending yarn jaunt was very successful.  KW, DVB, and I tooled on down Hwy. 41 to Yarns By Design in Neenah to spend their gift certificates.  I, of course, had to spend a bit there too.  Hey, they're going out of business (which is why we went right away) so everything's on sale.  On Sale--those are magic words that turn off your brain and open your wallet.  I rationalized buying the cables book because my idea for next year's Design-a-thon involves cables and the yarn was 50% off (it's from the bargain bin).  We had lunch across the street in a little cafe, then turned our wheels toward Iris Fine Yarns in Appleton where I spent my gift certificate on three bamboo circular needles in small sizes I didn't have and a couple skeins of 100% alpaca from their sale baskets.  Okay, so I overspent my certificate but a person can't just leave alpaca to languish in a basket like some low-rent acrylic.

 
Here's what I saw outside this morning.  The apple blossoms are snowing down on the yard.  The Bleeding Hearts are in their glory.  The ferns are unfurling and the Lilies of the Valley are just starting to bloom.  Soon I'll leave the patio door open just so their fragrance can permeate the house.











 
This little mama bunny (sorry she's blurry) was collecting straw and grass for her nest when I cripped out to pick an asparagus spear and the gray Catbird came for a snack.  There's a House Wren out there making a racket but he doesn't hold still long enough to get his picture taken.  We need to get the fountain out and running because I read someplace that wrens like to nest by running water.



















 


May 22--Mark Duran, AV-1001H.

Sky on fire
black tree skeletons
claw at the sun
jet like a condor
flies into the billowing clouds
~~~~~

I promised Durwood that I'd spend most of today on the couch with my feet up so I'd better get moving and get downstairs while he's asleep.  Oh, I'm so bad but I feel like a non-person piled up here on the couch all the time.  I can not wait for the doc to tell me I'm all better and I can go back to being a normal, active person.
--Barbara